Jobs at risk if Wirrabara Forest not replanted after bushfire

Wirrabara Forest, which was largely destroyed by a bushfire, could be another victim of a ForestrySA efficiency drive.

The state Forests Minister will not confirm if the area in the mid-north of South Australia will be replanted after a bushfire early this year destroyed 90 per cent of the forest.

It is expected a replanting would cost about $5 million.

Local sawmill owner Luke Morgan is worried for the future of local jobs.

"Forestry [SA] said that they weren't going to replant the forest unless they had money from the State Government," he said.

Minister Leon Bignell has been non-committal.

"What we need to do its to check out whether it's viable to plant the forests again. It's going to take 20 years until you sort of actually get something that you've got to the maturity that you can actually use to mill," he said.

ForestrySA's annual report last year outlined challenges from a difficult market for timber sales and from the effects of fires.

A confirmation of the bleak outlook came recently when ForestrySA asked for permission to cut as many as 100 jobs over two years.

It also is understood that since a forward sale of south-east forests, the Government is still paying subsidies of more than $9 million annually toward local forestry operations.

As part of the south-east sale, ForestrySA dissolved its fire insurance fund and handed back almost $19 million to the SA Government.

"The advice of ForestrySA was that the forest wasn't worth insuring," Mr Bignell said.

"It was going to be too much more to insure than to have that insurance, so there was no insurance on the forest."

There also is concern about how the timber is being managed at Wirrabara in the mid-north.

The Morgan Sawmill had been contracted to salvage timber in the forest since bushfires, but Mr Morgan says other contractors have been logging some of the unburnt timber which is usually salvaged last.

ForestrySA has declined the ABC's requests for detailed information on the salvage and future of Wirrabara.

Mr Bignell says other options may need to be looked at.

"We need to have a wider discussion about what that area could be really good at. They've already got some great mountain biking and tourism pursuits around there can we expand those in some way," he said.